Insurance and Pension Denmark (I&P Denmark) and the Danish Insurance Brokers Association (FMF) are establishing a new pension council to ensure greater transparency in the corporate pensions market in Denmark.

The Pension Supply Council is part of a new transparency agreement between the associations, including four consumer initiatives to improve information for pension customers.

The aim is to create more transparent processes when company pensions are put out to tender, for the benefit of both companies and employees. The new council brings together representatives from the social partners, consumer organisations and the pension industry and will continuously monitor market developments.

Around half of the contributions to mandatory labour market pensions go to company pensions, where companies choose their pension provider and often use insurance brokers to conduct tenders. However, this process can be difficult to understand for those who are not directly involved in the company pension agreements.

"If you're not close to the market, it can be difficult to understand how a pension scheme tender works. We want to make it easier to understand for both the employees in the individual company and the relevant organisations. That's why we are now establishing the Pension Supply Council together with F&P," FMF chairman, Kent Risvad, said.

The new council consists of representatives from FH, CO-Industri, HK Handel, HK Privat, DA, DE, DI, Forbrugerrådet Tænk and the broker and pension industry. The parties will monitor developments in the market for company pensions and the council will provide a forum for dialogue and knowledge sharing in the pension area.

As part of the transparency agreement, four consumer initiatives are also introduced to ensure transparency for employees about their company pension scheme.

"The transparency agreement contains a number of initiatives to make it easier for employees to understand why their pension scheme changes from one pension company to another, how the terms and conditions change, and what the pension and brokerage services each cost," I&P Denmark director of pensions, Jan V. Hansen, said.

With the new agreement, a series of information is provided when a company puts a pension scheme out to tender via an insurance broker.

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